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Berkut
}} Berkut is the nephew of King Rudolf of Rigel and a recurring antagonist in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. He's also one of the few characters in the series who could be considered a rival. In Shadows of Valentia Berkut first appears toward the end of the first act, where he meets Fenand and convinces the guy to defect to Rigel. Kind of. It actually starts with him dancing with Rinea. Rinea's notable for being Berkut's girlfriend and having absolutely no character. She just exists to show his depravity later on. More on that below. Anyway, Berkut's clearly important because he gets a cutscene, and since Echoes isn't Fates, it doesn't have to worry about using the same 12 models across all of the cutscenes. But we do't actually see how he's important for a while. (Pardon the placement of the spoiler warning. This is the best spot I can put it in without Berkut's box making it look weird.) Come Act 3, we learn that he's Rudolf's nephew. Actually, we probably already knew this, but Act 3 shows them interacting and all that. It's actually pretty cool since it's kind of like a court. We have Rudolf, Jedah, Nuibaba, and Berkut all in the same place. Or maybe that was Act 4. Either way, it unfortunately doesn't last since Jedah afterward leaves to antagonize Celica while Nuibaba becomes a one-off like in the original game. So Berkut decides to go stop the Deliverance. He and Fernand both charge Alm's army, but he's defeated, and as per Fire Emblem tradition, he gets to live because he has his own theme and cutscene, which show that there's more to come. So later on, Nuibaba gives him a mirror that he can use if he has trouble beating Alm. Rudolf also grants him a second chance. After all, Berkut's next in line for the throne, and he needs to be able to stop this army, right? So he returns, taking the spot of Seazas (IS why), and, to no one's surprises, loses again. But what did he expect? There were only three of them in the entire map. (Unless that was Act 3, but either way, Berkut just isn't a hard boss.) Then the 3DS writing we all know and love kicks in. In his desperation to beat Alm, Berkut shatters Nuibaba's mirror, which causes endless hands to spring from the ground. Are they the damned? Terrors? Or what? Who knows, who cares? Alm gets time to monologue before a Celica ex Machina saves him, regardless of the progress you've made on Celica's route, and this mirror and these hands are never mentioned again. No, seriously, they're probably there to show Berkut's desperation, but considering he didn't know what the mirror would do and actively declined the offer to use Duma's power when offered earlier, it's really just an entirely pointless scene on both sides and detracts from the otherwise good story (ruined themes notwithstanding). Berkut begs for one more chance just as the Deliverance approached Rigel Castle, but he's declined this. Instead, the angrier and angrier heir is left with the increasingly ineffective Rinea. Who still has no character. She's just there to take his abuse. When Rudolf dies and reveals that Alm is his son (the game's writing was severely hindered by virtue of it being a remake), Berkut snaps. He feels completely betrayed and that Rudolf has lied to him, and even if Rudolf had a good reason, he's not entirely wrong. After being groomed to take the throne all his life, now that he knows that the true successor is the one person he despises above all else, Duma has little trouble taking him. He heads down into the path to Duma Tower below Rigel Castle with Rinea and, in his madness, sacrifces her soul to Duma, turning her into a witch. Fernand, who's taken the news much better, stumbles upon this and is mortally wounded. Alm soon arrives to find Berkut. He tries to make peace with his cousin, but Berkut's already too far gone. Alm ends up having to put him, along with his hot girlfriend, down. In his final moments, he gives Alm a keepsake ring that belonged to his mother and goes along with Rinea's spirit into the light. Or something. In Heroes Berkut actually has some decent representation in Heroes... at first. His final map is used for the final map of Tempest Trials: Resonating Fangs, and he has his own GHB, based on another battle (and also making his the first GHB where you get charged from turn 1). Ian Sinclair's even back! However, he has Berkut's Lance+ rather than Kriemhild, the weapon he wielded in Echoes, his lance grants Res +4 when he's attacked rather than Distant Counter (in Echoes, it had a range of 1-3, Defence +5, Resistance +5, and Phantasm), which makes him worse than Camus, and his skills and speed are a joke. He's designed as a defensive unit in a game with an offense-focused meta, and he's one of the slowest characters in the game. This mockup of him that someone made before he came out is a far better representation of the Berkut we all know and love. Rinea Rinea, as mentioned above, is Berkut's girlfriend. The two met at a ball, and they enjoy dancing together. That's... really all there is to her. She's probably the nicest Rigelian we meet (never mind that Alm and co. only actually meet her when she's a witch), and she just stands there and takes it when Berkut yells at her for nothing while he loses it. She's really just there to show how far Berkut's fallen, btu the fact that he sacrifices her soul to Duma is pretty horrifying, as is the ensuing cutscene the first time you see it. Of course, the fact that being a witch is mentioned time and time again to involve sacrificing the soul makes it ambiguous whether she really came for him at the end. And why would she? He doesn't deserve her. His Music Berkut is unique in that he has his own theme as well as two battle themes, a map/battle theme, and a death theme. He may have more than any character in the series, actually. I think Lyon and Idunn are in second place with three. *His theme *His first battle theme *His second battle theme *His third battle theme *His death theme Quotes Trivia *As with Fernand, he was once playable but cut from the game. On one hand, of course this is tragic, but at the same time, remember what happened with Awakening's villains? Perhaps this is for the best. Besides, his and Rinea's deaths help make the narrative more concise, and Rinea's fate in particular is effective considering the remake's increased focus on witches. Category:Fire Emblem Characters Category:Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Characters Category:Fire Emblem Characters not from Awakening Category:Fire Emblem Heroes Characters Category:Characters with Capes Category:Royalty Category:Fire Emblem Archanea Characters Category:OCs